Indulgence

November 2010 archive

So, I listened to the Nora Roberts Chat from RWA 2008 online. It’s a really good podcast/recording.

I identify a lot with Nora when of when she began her career and managing her three and six year old sons. She wrote when they were at school, and stopped when they came home. She is a powerhouse writer. A total inspiration.

Have you ever downloaded any of these podcasts? Love it. I love her no-nonsense attitude. She treats her writing as a serious job. No room for bull**** excuses as to why you didn’t have the time to write or whatever. Real life will always find ways to get in your way and prevent you from writing, but you have to own your success and determine where your cut-off is on just how far you’re willing/able to go in pursuit of your goals and dreams.

How many people say they just don’t have the time to XYZ?

It’s as if that’s the real reason why they haven’t achieved their potential success. You’ve heard it before… “if only I had the time”, “if this thing wasn’t happening this weekend”, “if I had more energy”, “if I didn’t have to do the [insert excuse here], etc. The take-away from Nora is that if you REALLY and TRULY want something bad enough, you’ll make the time, find the time, barter the time, steal the time etc.

My husband always says that “unrealized potential and failure are exactly the same thing”. In the end both reach the same end. If you want to succeed as a writer, you have to “realize” the potential by juggling and balancing life commitments and working hard. That’s the tricky challenge. The easy challenge is dealing with “failure”. Failure is cured by the intrinsic belief that you will achieve your goal and the [smart] repetition for as long as it takes to grow and get there. It’s that simple. Turning ‘potential’ to reality is hard work but necessary. Stopping failure is just a matter of trying harder again and again until success.

All the people you think who made it and are successful out there didn’t just get to where they are by accident. Nor did they achieve success by bypassing the gruelling hours of work that it took them to get there. If you’re determined to be a published author then who cares how long it takes to get there, who cares how many rejections you receive along the way.